The present invention relates to intravenous (IV) poles and, more particularly, to an IV poles with an integrated clamp and power supply.
IV poles are used in the medical industry to suspend bags of fluid for introduction into a patient through an IV line. The current IV pole design was originally developed in the 1940's when patients had an average of two different IV bags attached to them. However, with advances in medical technology, the average patient can have far higher numbers of IV features attached to them. In some cases, such as intensive care units (ICUs) of hospitals, a given patient can have nine or ten IV features attached to him/her. Meanwhile, due to further advances, IV gravity feeds have been replaced by infusion pumps, which are computer-controlled pumps that control the flow rate and amount of fluids being introduced into the patient along each IV line.
A problem faced by health care professionals, such as hospital nurses, is that even on the most modern IV poles, power is supplied to the individual features (i.e., pumps) through conventional 110V outlets. This leads to a profusion of different alternative current (AC) lines and transformers being plugged into a limited number of power outlets and thus necessitates the use of power strips. This is not only a dangerous situation, since plugs can accidentally slip out of their outlet, leading to drains on the built-in backup batteries in the IV pumps, but the multiplication of cords leads to lost time in critical situations when a patient must be moved. Indeed, during patient movement, cords for the pumps all have to be located, untangled and disconnected from their respective outlets, carefully wrapped to avoid having anyone step on them or to avoid losing them, and then reinserted into new AC outlets in the new patient location.
The time required for this process can be significant when a patient has several different IV lines and presents unnecessary danger when patient movement must be done as quickly as possible.